Armageddon
Armageddon is an American disaster film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. The film stars Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, William Fichtner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Keith David and Steve Buscemi. Synopsis After discovering that an asteroid the size of Texas is going to impact Earth in less than a month, N.A.S.A. recruits a misfit team of deep core drillers to save the planet. Plot A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis and bombards a swath of land from America's East Coast including New York City through Finland. NASA discovers that a rogue comet the size of Texas passed through the asteroid belt and pushed forward a large amount of space debris. The core of the comet, now considered an asteroid, will collide with Earth in 18 days, creating another extinction event. NASA scientists, led by Dan Truman, plan to trigger a nuclear detonation 800 ft inside the asteroid that will split the asteroid in two, driving the pieces apart so both will fly safely past the Earth. NASA contacts Harry Stamper, considered the best deep-sea oil driller in the world, for assistance and advice. Harry returns to NASA, along with his teenage daughter Grace, to keep her away from her new boyfriend, one of Harry's young and rambunctious drillers, A. J. Frost. Harry and Grace learn about the asteroid, and Harry explains he will need his team, including A. J., to carry out the mission. Once they have been rounded up and the situation is explained, they agree to help, but only after their list of unusual rewards and demands are met. NASA sets plans to launch two military space shuttles Freedom and Independence with redundant equipment to increase the chances of success; the shuttles will refill with liquid oxygen from the Russian space station Mir before making a slingshot maneuver around the Moon as to approach the asteroid from its backside where the target bomb site is located. NASA puts Harry and his crew through a short and rigorous astronaut training program, while Harry and his team re-outfit the mobile drillers, "Armadillos", for the difficult job. The destruction of Shanghai by an asteroid fragment forces NASA to reveal their plans to the world. The shuttles are launched and arrive at Mir where its sole cosmonaut Lev helps with refueling. A major fire breaks out near the last stage of transfer, and the crews including Lev evacuate to the shuttles just before Mir explodes. The shuttles perform the slingshot around the moon, but approaching the asteroid, the Independence's engines are destroyed by trailing debris, and appears lost when it crashes on the asteroid. Grace, aware A.J. was aboard the Independence, is traumatized by this news. Unknown to the others, A.J., Lev, and "Bear" (another of Harry's crew) survive the impact and head towards the target site in their Armadillo. Meanwhile, Freedom safely lands on the asteroid, but has overshot the target landing zone, ending over a much-harder metallic field than planned. Their drilling quickly falls behind schedule. The military initiates "Secondary Protocol" to remotely detonate the nuclear weapon on the asteroid's surface, despite Truman's assurance it would have no effect. Truman alerts Harry, and he is able to get the shuttle commander's help to disarm the remote trigger. Harry pushes his crew harder, but in their haste, they hit a gas pocket, blowing their Armadillo into space. They consider the mission lost until the arrival of the Independence's Armadillo. With A.J. at the controls, they quickly reach the required depth for the bomb. The heat from the asteroid's approach to earth damages the triggering device, forcing someone to stay behind manually to detonate the bomb. After all the non-flight crew volunteers, they draw straws, and A.J. is selected. As he and Harry exit the airlock, Harry rips off A.J.'s air hose and shoves him back inside, telling him he is the son Harry never had, and he would be proud to have A.J. marry Grace. Harry prepares to detonate the bomb and contacts Grace to say his last goodbyes. After the Freedom moves to a safe distance, Harry pushes the button at the last minute, and the bomb successfully splits the asteroid to avoid collision with Earth as planned. Freedom lands, and the surviving crew are treated as heroes. A.J. and Grace get married, with photos of Harry and the other lost crew members present in memoriam. List of Disasters *Asteroids (East Coast + Europe) Cast *Bruce Willis as Harry Stamper, the leader of the Freedom shuttle drill team. *Ben Affleck as A. J. Frost, Grace's boyfriend and the leader of the Independence shuttle drill team. *Billy Bob Thornton as Dan Truman *Liv Tyler as Grace Stamper, Harry Stamper's teenage daughter. *Will Patton as Charles "Chick" Chapple *Steve Buscemi as "Rockhound" *Michael Clarke Duncan as J. Otis "Bear" Kurleen Bear *Owen Wilson as Oscar Choice *Clark Heathcliffe Brolly as Fred Noonan *Peter Stormare as Lev Andropov, Russian Space Station crew leader. *William Fichtner as Colonel Willie Sharp *Ken Hudson Campbell as Max Lennert *Keith David as General Kimsey *Jessica Steen as Co-Pilot Jennifer Watts *Grayson McCouch as Gruber *Jason Isaacs as Dr. Ronald Quincy *Chris Ellis as Walter Clark Production In May 1998, Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes. This additional footage, incorporated two months prior to the film's release, was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to differentiate the film from Deep Impact which was released a few months before. Nine scribes worked on script, five get credit. In addition to Robert Roy Pool, Jonathan Hensleigh, Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno and J.J. Abrams, the writers involved included Paul Attanasio, Ann Biderman, Scott Rosenberg and Robert Towne. Originally, it was Hensleigh’s script, based on Pool’s original, that had been greenlighted by Touchstone. Then producer Jerry Bruckheimer hired the succession of scribes for rewrites and polishes. Soundtrack Armageddon Soundtrack redirects here. Release Prior to Armageddon's release, the film was advertised in Super Bowl XXXII at a cost of $2.6 million. A novelization was written by C. Bolin, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, J. J. Abrams, Tony Gilroy and Shane Salerno and the story by Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert Pool. Home media Armageddon was made available on DVD thanks too The Criterion Collection, a specialist film distributor of primarily arthouse films that markets what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest". Reception Box Office Armageddon was released on July 1, 1998 in 3,127 theaters in the United States and Canada. It ranked first at the box office with an opening weekend gross of $36 million. It grossed $201.6 million in the United States and Canada and $352.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $553.7 million. Critical response Armageddon received mostly mixed reviews from film critics, who mainly took issue with "the furious pace of its editing". The film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films. In his original review, Ebert stated, "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained". Todd McCarthy of Variety also gave the film a negative review, noting Michael Bay's rapid cutting style: "Much of the confusion, as well as the lack of dramatic rhythm or character development, results directly from Bay's cutting style, which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 2½ hours." The film has a cumulative 40% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while achieving a 42% aggregate score on Metacritic. Scientific accuracy Michael Bay admitted that the central premise of the film, "that NASA could actually do something in a situation like this," was unrealistic. Robert Roy Pool, a contributing screenwriter, stated that his script, in which an anti-gravity device is used to deflect a comet from a collision course with Earth, was "much more in line with top-secret research." Awards The film received four Academy Award nominations at the 72nd Academy Awards, including; Best Sound(Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Keith A. Wester), Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Original Song ("I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" performed by Aerosmith). The film received the Saturn Awards for Best Direction and Best Science Fiction Film (where it tied with Dark City). It was also nominated for seven Razzie Awards including: Worst Actor (Bruce Willis), Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actress (Liv Tyler), Worst Screen Couple (Tyler and Ben Affleck) and Worst Original Song. Only one Razzie was awarded: Bruce Willis received the Worst Actor award for Armageddon, in addition to his appearances in Mercury Rising and The Siege, both released in the same year as this film. Theme Park Ride At Walt Disney Studios Park located in Disneyland Paris the attraction "Armageddon – Les Effets Speciaux" is based on the film. It recreates the scene in the movie in which the Russian Space Station is destroyed. Trivia *Towards the end of the credits there is a disclaimer stating, "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein." Gallery Category:Films Category:American Films Category:1990's Category:1998